Board adopts emergency policy to allow rented vans for district‑sponsored travel

The Brecksville‑Broadview Heights Board of Education on March 18 adopted an emergency revision to policy 8650 to allow the district to use rented vehicles for school‑sponsored trips.

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Martin told the board the emergency action was needed to comply with state law and to avoid prohibitive charter or aviation costs for an imminent spring‑break trip. “There is, Ohio Revised Code that says that you cannot take a district owned vehicle more than 1000 miles past the state line,” he said, explaining the policy shift would permit renting vans for the baseball team’s Myrtle Beach trip rather than placing students in parent vehicles or paying for much costlier charters.

Board members emphasized that drivers would be approved, certified van drivers and that the emergency clause was used only to accelerate a routine policy change because the trip departs in two weeks. The board approved the motion on a roll call vote of 5–0 (Chase, Galick, Kwiatkowski, O’Meara, Dosan).

The policy change was presented as operationally limited to enabling safe, district‑supervised transportation that meets insurance and Ohio law requirements; the board did not alter long‑term vehicle‑fleet policy in the motion. Staff said they will finalize rental contracts and driver certifications before the trip.